BBM to be preinstalled on LG smartphones

BBM will soon come preinstalled on the LG G Pro Lite from LG Electronics Inc. in markets around the world. BlackBerry announced a bundling agreement with LG Electronics involving both standard and virtual preloading (using the LG App Manager) and confirmed that BBM will also continue to be available as a free download from Android app stores, including Google Play.

“BBM is widely used throughout the Middle East, Africa and Indonesia where smartphone users tend to engage heavily in social networking,” said Kevin Shin, Vice President of Marketing for Asia, the Middle East and CIS countries of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “The LG G Pro Lite offers an optimized BBM experience with its large, high quality display and embedded Stylus Pen.”

“People across the globe are using BBM to connect with each other and the enthusiasm has been phenomenal,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President for BBM at BlackBerry. “We’re extremely pleased that LG Electronics will help bring their customers a more seamless experience with BBM by preloading the app, starting with the G Pro Lite in key markets.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

Country focus: Ethiopia breaking new technology ground

Looking past the turbulent history of Ethiopia, one that has been impacted by famine, drought and war, there is evidence today which confirms that this East African region has fully embraced ICT to advance itself and establish a secure position amongst developing economies with high-growth potential.

However, challenges do remain – including slow response by government to mobile money adoption, infrastructure, connectivity, as well as the country’s repressive stance on digital freedoms, particularly social networking and the internet.

It was only at the beginning of 2013 when Ethiopia’s government approved mobile money in the country, allowing banks and micro-finance institutions to provide transaction-based banking online.

The 2013 Web Index, brought out by the World Wide Web Foundation, gave Ethiopia an overall ranking of 80^th position out of 81 countries (taking into account several sub-indexes including universal access, relevant content and impact & empowerment). The country also scored 12.9 in terms of freedom and openness, the criteria of which includes the degree to which users have rights to online information, their ability to express opinion, as well as safety and privacy.

The internet brimmed with information and reports in mid-2012 when news broke  of the Ethiopian government’s intention to ban Skype and other VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, as well as video chat platforms, for businesses.

source: www.itnewsafrica.com

Morocco gives strong regional performance for internet readiness

Morocco ranked second only to South Africa in terms of "internet readiness", an indicator of future growth potential, among the 14 countries compared in the report, which was published by the consultancy firm McKinsey & Company in November.

The findings come on the back of a drive under way in Morocco to increase broadband access nationwide by extending fibre-optic networks into more isolated regions of the country and to roll out a 4G network.

Preparations pay dividends

According to the McKinsey report, the internet contributed roughly $2.2bn to the Moroccan economy in 2012, or 2.3% of GDP. In percentage terms, this placed the country behind Senegal (3.3%) and Kenya (2.9%), although in absolute terms it exceeded Senegal's $470m and Kenya's $1.1bn.

In calculating the internet's contribution to GDP, McKinsey took into account private consumption (including revenues from mobile and fixed internet service, smart phone and computer purchases, and e-commerce), public expenditure, private investment and trade balance. Morocco's score was driven largely by the trade balance factor, thanks to the exports of its business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector, in addition to private consumption.

source: www.zawya.com

Nokia Opens Office In Libya

Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) has opened an office in Libya, to enhance mobile broadband service delivery by developing its infrastructure, as the North African country embarks on a robust redevelopment programme of its telecom industry.

“The opening of this modern office marks our readiness to deliver large-scale mobile broadband rollouts in Libya,” Igor Leprince, head of the Middle East and Africa business region at Nokia Solutions and Networks told Human IPO.

“As the world’s specialist in mobile broadband, NSN will help Libyan operators provide a superior mobile broadband experience for their customers.”

It was reported that following the civil war in 2011 that ousted long standing leader Muommar Gaddafi, over $1 billion in telecom infrastructure was lost, with more than 20 percent of cell sites destroyed.

Despite the destruction, Libya still boasts one of the most developed telecom industries within Africa.

A report by telecom-focused research consultancy, BuddeComm confirmed the country’s mobile penetration stood at 109%, an unrivalled growth across the continent. It also showed that a 15-year investment budget of $10 billion has so far rolled out cutting edge technologies such as Africa’s first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP), expansion of DSL and WiMax broadband services and new international fibre connections and upgrades.

The new regime is keen on building on the existing strongholds and as well increasing private participation in the industry, with a plan to privatize one of the three state-owned mobile networks through an IPO listing this year already in its final stages.

source: www.ventures-africa.com

MTN Group - Traverse The Wilds Of Africa For 2014′s Best Stock

Investors have pretty well forgotten about emerging markets over the past three years. The "BRIC" countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China no longer excite. Nor do more exotic non-BRIC locales such as South Africa. The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) is down by roughly 15% since the beginning of 2011, while the S&P 500 has gained nearly 45%.

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a major Africa bull. It's the last major investment frontier, and the growth is very real. Per capita GDP has more than doubled in the past decade, and according to Deloitte, seven of the 10 fastest-growing countries in the world are in Africa. One sign of the booming middle class is Africa's surprisingly high cell phone penetration; by Ericsson's estimates, the continent already has 780 million mobile subscribers. Don't underestimate the significance of this. Africa has harsh geography, which makes building infrastructure very difficult and very expensive. But mobile technology allows large parts of Africa to essentially leapfrog over legacy technology infrastructure - such as copper phone wires - and into the modern world.

This is showing up in some interesting places. For example, mobile phones are giving millions of working and middle-class consumers access to basic banking services for the first time. According to Deloitte, "a 10% increase in mobile phone penetration in a poor country is linked to an increase in GDP of 1.2% due to the ensuing economic activity that people engage in as a result of being 'plugged in' and connected." For a part of the world that has been more or less in isolation since the dawn of time, this is a game-changer.

source: www.seekingalpha.com

SEACOM gears up for another year of expansion

Following a year of growth and progress in its business, pan-African telecommunications enabler SEACOM will be hunting for growth in new African territories in 2014, as well as continuing its evolution from a cable operator into an infrastructure provider that offers a range of IP solutions to its service provider and operator customers.

That’s according to SEACOM CEO Mark Simpson, who says he anticipates strong growth in the African telecom market as the impact of government and operator investments into national fibre links, last-kilometre connectivity, and local content continue to be felt across the continent.  With these essential pieces of the puzzle rapidly falling into place, SEACOM expects robust growth for its business in this year.

“During the past year, we have seen terrific progress. Our investments in West coast capacity, our African ring and meshed IP networks have started to come into their own – developments that have been really good for SEACOM’s customers. Terrestrial fibre penetration has also improved and we’re seeing continued and essential access network developments across our markets. These factors helped us to grow in 2013 and will continue to fuel our evolution in 2014,” says Simpson.

Looking ahead strategic plans include expanding into a number of new countries which it does not yet serve directly, including West coast countries. SEACOM will continue to invest in countries to ensure its drive to become a truly pan-African infrastructure provider is met.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

Another South African telecom firm waves goodbye to the Kenyan market.

South African fixed-line telecom operator, Telkom SA, last month made a dramatic retreat from the East African market, selling loss-making units iWayAfrica and Africa Online to Gondwana International Networks. Telkom SA’s sale highlights the competitive and difficult environment facing many telecom companies and Internet service providers as new technologies and better-funded competitors dominate the market and influence the pricing of products and services. Analysts expect the sale to set up the telecom market across Africa for mergers and acquisitions to consolidate market share. It also brings to the fore how a number of South African companies are struggling to penetrate the East African market. The financial details of the Telkom SA transaction were not disclosed, but the operator termed the companies an “immaterial part of the group”. “This transaction is one of many initiatives that will contribute to our own turnaround, allowing us to focus on our core South African fixed-line and mobile operations,” said Telkom SA CEO Sipho Maseko.


source: www.standardmedia.co

Surging mobile internet demand straining African telecom networks

Telecom companies in the Middle East and Africa could face growing quality of service (QoS) issues in future because of a rise in internet usage fueled by more affordable smart mobile devices.

Mahmoud Samy -- area head Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan at Arbor Networks -- told the Trade Arabia publication that the Mideast and Africa could see a 31% traffic leap on consumer internet by 2017 from a 10% growth level in 2012.

Samy added that this could pile pressure on telecommunication companies on the continent to expand their networks and maintain quality services.

He said African telcos’ failure to improve QoS could result in service level agreement credits, damage to brand reputation and customer churn - all of which impact the bottom lines of their business

source: www.itwebafrica.com

Cameroonian Businessman To Launch First Indigenous Telecom

 Cameroonian businessman and owner of Seme New Beach Hotel, Semme Mineral Water and Climacam, Seme Noungon plans to launch Altylis Seme Telecom, a 7.6 million euro ($10.3 million) lowcost telephony company, into the “uncrowded” Central African market this month.

The first locally-owned telecom operator in the Cameroon, Altylis Seme Telecom said its objective is to “break mobile prices” in the country which has South African telecoms giant MTN and French multinational, Orange as its only mobile network service providers.

Both companies control a combined 11 million subscriber base, which is about half of the country’s population.

In 2012, Vietnamese firm Viettel obtained licences to operate 2G and 3G networks in Cameroon and announced it would go live to the public by March 2014.

According to a study by Pyramid Research, the introduction of 3G services and integrated data could attract more than six million new subscribers in Cameroon by 2017.

source:www.ventures-africa.com

Another South African telecom firm waves goodbye to the Kenyan market

South African fixed-line telecom operator, Telkom SA, last month made a dramatic retreat from the East African market, selling loss-making units iWayAfrica and Africa Online to Gondwana International Networks. Telkom SA’s sale highlights the competitive and difficult environment facing many telecom companies and Internet service providers as new technologies and better-funded competitors dominate the market and influence the pricing of products and services. Analysts expect the sale to set up the telecom market across Africa for mergers and acquisitions to consolidate market share. It also brings to the fore how a number of South African companies are struggling to penetrate the East African market. The financial details of the Telkom SA transaction were not disclosed, but the operator termed the companies an “immaterial part of the group”. “This transaction is one of many initiatives that will contribute to our own turnaround, allowing us to focus on our core South African fixed-line and mobile operations,” said Telkom SA CEO Sipho Maseko. 


source: www.standardmedia.co

Cameroonian Businessman To Launch First Indigenous Telecom

Cameroonian businessman and owner of Seme New Beach Hotel, Semme Mineral Water and Climacam, Seme Noungon plans to launch Altylis Seme Telecom, a 7.6 million euro ($10.3 million) lowcost telephony company, into the “uncrowded” Central African market this month.

The first locally-owned telecom operator in the Cameroon, Altylis Seme Telecom said its objective is to “break mobile prices” in the country which has South African telecoms giant MTN and French multinational, Orange as its only mobile network service providers.

Both companies control a combined 11 million subscriber base, which is about half of the country’s population.

In 2012, Vietnamese firm Viettel obtained licences to operate 2G and 3G networks in Cameroon and announced it would go live to the public by March 2014.

According to a study by Pyramid Research, the introduction of 3G services and integrated data could attract more than six million new subscribers in Cameroon by 2017.

source: www.cameroon-africa.com

Country focus: Ethiopia breaking new technology ground

Looking past the turbulent history of Ethiopia, one that has been impacted by famine, drought and war, there is evidence today which confirms that this East African region has fully embraced ICT to advance itself and establish a secure position amongst developing economies with high-growth potential.

However, challenges do remain – including slow response by government to mobile money adoption, infrastructure, connectivity, as well as the country’s repressive stance on digital freedoms, particularly social networking and the internet.

It was only at the beginning of 2013 when Ethiopia’s government approved mobile money in the country, allowing banks and micro-finance institutions to provide transaction-based banking online.

The 2013 Web Index, brought out by the World Wide Web Foundation, gave Ethiopia an overall ranking of 80^th position out of 81 countries (taking into account several sub-indexes including universal access, relevant content and impact & empowerment). The country also scored 12.9 in terms of freedom and openness, the criteria of which includes the degree to which users have rights to online information, their ability to express opinion, as well as safety and privacy.

The internet brimmed with information and reports in mid-2012 when news broke  of the Ethiopian government’s intention to ban Skype and other VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, as well as video chat platforms, for businesses.

source: www.itnewsafrica.com

Telefonica launches global wi-fi hotspot service with single sign-on in 110 countries

Telefonica has launched a new global wi-fi product, offering users single billing and sign-on for 1.3 million wireless hotspots across the world.

The new Telefonica hotspot service is aimed at globetrotting execs, and attempts to make it simpler for business travellers to buy minutes from public wi-fi connections across the world.

The service, called Universal Wi-Fi, supports iOS and Android mobile devices as well as Windows PCs and Macs, offering access to hotspots in 110 countries across Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia.

It follows Telefonica's launch last year of its pan-European 3G plus hardware bundles in partnership with Dell. The packages give users access to Telefonica's 3G networks in 29 countries across Europe. Like Universal Wi-Fi, the NetReady services are pitched as making access, billing and expenses management simpler for businesses, but come with premium pricing.

Telefonica hasn't released any details of the cost of Universal Wi-Fi, but is promoting it as a flat rate service within its mobility portfolio, with single sign-on at various hotspots, which can be used across up to five devices.

source: www.zdnet.com

Sony announces new affordable phablet

 It may have arrived late to the phablet party, but now that Sony has turned up, it has done so with something new, exciting and accessible in the form of the Xperia T2 Ultra.

Theoretically, it's simple to make an affordable phablet. Start with an affordable, mid-range phone and add a bigger, medium resolution screen and put it on sale.

In practice, finding the optimum balance between performance and features and the bottom line is very challenging if you want the end product to be in any way desirable. But that's exactly what the Xperia T2 Ultra manages to do.

Its 6-inch screen offers a 1280x720p entry-level HD resolution and its rear-facing camera boasts 13 megapixels. It can shoot full HD video too. But Sony hasn't stopped there, the device is also packed with the company's own imaging know-how and apps so that users really can make the most of the camera. Then there's the processor which is quad core and there's 1GB of RAM at hand too, so it shouldn't be too hard to multitask.

Internal storage capacity is a bit on the low side -- just 8GB -- but that can be expanded via microSD card by a further 32GB. As well as physical, Sony is also offering 50GB of free cloud storage for the device, via Box.

The handset runs version 4.3 of Android and supports 4G/LTE as well as 3G networks so it should be fast at pushing data back and forward; this means that streaming a HD video from the cloud via that LTE connection should be more than feasible and won't result in the frustration that constant buffering of a moving image can cause.

source: www.mysinchew.com

Unitel and Ericsson Demo LTE-Advanced Technology in Angola

Ericsson has partnered with Angola's telecoms service provider Unitel, to demonstrate LTE Advanced (LTE-A) Carrier Aggregation technology.

The demonstration was done on both 1800MHz and 900MHz spectrum bands on a commercial network, using a commercial terminal in mid December 2013 when Unitel transferred data across its live network in Luanda, Angola, carrying commercial traffic.

LTE Carrier Aggregation is the next step in the evolution of high-speed mobile broadband services, enabling operators to make the most of their existing spectrum assets by combining multiple spectrum bands to enable higher mobile broadband download speeds.

Amilcar Safeca, deputy CEO, Unitel, said: "Unitel is always innovating to enhance the customer experience. With the global leap toward higher data access speeds for sophisticated video and mobility services, we are enhancing our network to ensure we continually provide high-quality services to our high-demanding subscriber base. With this demo, we are well on the way to launching the most advanced mobile network in Angola and perhaps Africa in the near future. We are working with Ericsson to make this happen."

Magnus Mchunguzi, VP, Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, commneted: "Using LTE-A technology, operators can increase their network capacity and enhance the mobile broadband user experience, enabling up to 1Gbps data rates in the future. This demo places Unitel on the very limited list of operators in the world to demonstrate LTE-A in a live network using a commercial terminal. We are very proud to have partnered with Unitel in this achievement, further extending our long-standing relationship with Unitel."

source: www.allafrica.com

Africa set for free Wi-Fi boost this year

Africa is set to see an increase in the number of free Wi-Fi hotspots in 2014, in line with recent moves to connect entire cities in both Rwanda and South Africa.

According to Ruckus Wireless, a company specialising in Wi-Fi infrastructure, initiatives based on those implemented in Kigali, Rwanda, and the City of Tshwane, South Africa, will become commonplace this year.

HumanIPO reported in November the City of Tshwane, in partnership with the non-profit Project Isizwe, was rolling out the first phase of free Wi-Fi for the city.

Just a few months earlier, it was announced that the Smart Kigali initiative was planning to set-up free Wi-Fi zones in the Rwandan capital.

source: www.humanipo.com

Unitel and Ericsson demo Africa’s first LTE-Advanced technology

Ericsson and Angola's leading telecommunications provider Unitel, successfully demonstrated LTE Advanced (LTE-A) Carrier Aggregation technology for the first time in Africa.

The demonstration was made on both 1800MHz and 900MHz spectrum bands on a commercial network, using a commercial terminal, and took place on December 18, when Unitel transferred data across its live network in Luanda, Angola carrying commercial traffic.

LTE Carrier Aggregation is the next step in the evolution of high-speed mobile broadband services, enabling operators to make the most of their existing spectrum assets by combining multiple spectrum bands to enable higher mobile broadband download speeds.

Amilcar Safeca, Deputy CEO of Unitel says: “Unitel is always innovating to enhance the customer experience. With the global leap towards higher data access speeds for sophisticated video and mobility services, we are enhancing our network to ensure we continually provide high-quality services to our high demanding subscriber base. With this demo we are well on the way to launching in the near future the most advanced mobile network in Angola and perhaps Africa. We are working with Ericsson to make this happen.”

source: www.telecomtiger.com

Is 2014 the year of Wi-Fi in Africa

Free Wi-Fi initiatives in African cities such as Rwanda’s Kigali and South Africa’s Tshwane are set to drive wireless internet access on the continent, says Ruckus Wireless.

Ruckus Wireless, a supplier of advanced wireless systems for the mobile internet infrastructure market, has predicted that this year could be a watershed one for Wi-Fi.

According to research from the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) compiled by Informa Telecoms & Media, global public Wi-Fi hotspot numbers could reach 5.8 million by 2015, marking a 350% increase since 2011.

And officials at Ruckus Wireless say that in 2014 the state of the Wi-Fi industry could continue to improve

source: www.itwebafrica.com

Gabon Wagers on High-Speed Internet

Gabon wants to be a player in the digital economy on the African continent and a regional hub hosting enterprises in the sector. The authorities of the middle-income African country have announced this goal in their quest to diversify Gabon’s economy and reduce its dependence on oil.

At the TransformAfrica summit on new technologies held in Kigali, Rwanda, in late 2013, Gabon’s president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, declared that Gabon’s connection to the Central African high-speed fiber optic network by 2015 would mark the “first step of a journey toward digital independence.” The president stated, “If we want to change the lives of our citizens, we need to act quickly to make ICTs a top priority.”

According to ARCEP, Gabon’s Postal and Electronic Communications Regulatory Agency, out of a population of 1.6 million, Gabon had only 497,371 Internet subscribers (mobile and fixed) at the end of 2012, and high-speed 3G and 4G mobile connections were not yet available. Thus the country lags far behind its goal to increase Internet speed for the public. Development of high-speed mobile and fixed Internet in Gabon cannot be achieved without fiber optic infrastructure to facilitate high-quality, low-cost transmission of digital applications, services, and content to citizens and businesses across the country.

source: www.worldbank.org

Airtel scoops 2013 African operator award

BHARTI Airtel, one of the country’s leading telecommunications service providers with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa, has been recognised as the African Operator for 2013 at the CommsMEA Awards.
Airtel out-shined strong shortlisted contenders, among others the MTN Group, Vodacom and Nedjma, at the eighth edition of the event held at Jumeirah Emirates Tower in Dubai.
The event was attended by over 300 executives from the telecommunications sector, vendors, ministers and regulators.
The award recognises excellence within the telecommunications sector across the Middle East and Africa.
This is according to a statement released in Lusaka yesterday.
The winners were picked from a record number of nominations by a judging panel.
Bharti Airtel managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) (international), Manoj Kohli is elated by the achievement.
“We are humbled by this recognition and the trust that the international industry panel, consumers and other stakeholders have placed on Airtel since our entry into Africa in 2010,” he said.
Mr Kohli said in the past three years, the company has succeeded in serving more communities within countries it operates.

source: www.daily-mail.co